Hmm. Put a low-light LED coupled with a crappy mono speaker in a light socket instead of having a nice bright LED bulb in there and a nice BT enabled stereo on the bookshelf? I don't think so.

vrplumber
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2014-03-14T20:24:48Z —
#3

This might work well, if you have a light socket setup that also doubles well as surround sound.

To get the most out of something like this, a room should be designed with light layout optimized for sound, but I guess at that point you could just run wire for dedicated speakers.

Edit: I wonder how this would work on a dimmer switch?

heartfruit
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2014-03-14T20:34:47Z —
#4

I'm not sure I want to have to use my phone to turn off a light.

jandrese
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2014-03-14T20:45:45Z —
#5

So does turning off the light switch kill the music?

SteampunkBanana
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2014-03-14T20:50:44Z —
#6

Probably badly. You're going to need to use the phone to (likely) drive the PWM down on the chips while not screwing up the voltage supplying the amp.

SteampunkBanana
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2014-03-14T20:51:05Z —
#7

It should, power's power.

timmh
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2014-03-14T20:52:36Z —
#8

A Bluetooth enabled bulb with a speaker would have some pretty interesting potential for accessibility. Imagine having it tie into your smoke detector, or door bell, or other feature that might need both audio and visual feedback to a user who was deaf.

winkybber
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2014-03-15T00:16:53Z —
#9

Yes. We have friends who have "smart house" computerised control audio, video and lighting throughout. It includes audio and video servers etc. They always seem to be having some trouble making it work. They use touch panels and iPhone apps to talk to the the "system". But it mostly seems like far more trouble than it is worth to me. I do kind-of like the idea of being able to program things to come on and off when I want them, or do some stuff remotely, but for me, and for now, a switch seems the best compromise for most things.

winkybber
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2014-03-15T00:18:59Z —
#10

Yeah, screw the "hidden" crappy speakers and bluetooth audio. There is no shortcut around decent source, amplification and speakers if you want something to listen to, as opposed to just background noise.

spiregrain
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2014-03-15T01:23:58Z —
#11

Why is this a Kickstarter? You can walk into any branch of John Lewis and just buy a Bluetooth speaker lightbulb made by Hasled.

writebastard
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2014-03-15T10:19:35Z —
#12

spiregrain said:

Bluetooth speaker lightbulb

I thought that orange juice, available in 12 different varieties of orange juice, including three grades of pulp density, was the signature unnecessary product of a decadent consumer culture spiraling into an hell.

But no. The bluetooth speaker lightbulb is that product.

falcon2001
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2014-03-16T21:10:30Z —
#13

It's honestly kind of a clever idea, combining new lighting with 'stealthy' speaker setups. It's probably not particularly well-implemented, but I think it's kind of unfair to call it the fourth sign of the apocalypse, when we have things like Sharper Image and other stores full of that sort of thing.

GilbertWham
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2014-03-16T22:47:53Z —
#14

Ok, not the Fourth Sign. Notable Harbinger, still.

falcon2001
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2014-03-16T23:00:10Z —
#15

Maybe. Still, if you've ever tried to run speakers for ambient audio, you'd probably appreciate the simplicity offered by this device - it comes off very 'I THREW BLUETOOTH ON A LIGHT BULB YAY' but I mean honestly the alternative is pretty crazy.

And again, they probably don't sound particularly great, but if you just wanted some audio for some rooms in your house or business for background music, it'd be great and zero wires/etc.

GilbertWham
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2014-03-16T23:29:13Z —
#16

I've got muckle speakers that shake the building. more 'all pervasive', than ambient. but yeah, they'd be good for some applications. actually, if you wanted music tight through a house for a party, that's a lot better than the alternative of cranking one big set of speakers up high enough to frighten the pigeons off the roof...

doctorow
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2014-03-19T19:34:22Z —
#17

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